


Run, run as fast as you can

by Lookingkindofdumb



Category: Avengers
Genre: Avengers AU set in the Firefly universe, Gen, Gen or Steve/Tony pre-slash, Obligatory warning for Tony Stark, One-Shot, Time line? What time line, Where Tony and Steve need to stop taking offence at what they each say, whichever way you squint
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-20
Updated: 2015-10-20
Packaged: 2018-04-27 07:45:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,356
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5039899
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lookingkindofdumb/pseuds/Lookingkindofdumb
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Firefly AU.</p><p>They're a crew but not exactly a team. Not yet anyway.</p><p>Or, alternatively, Steve is Mal (but not really), Tony is a mix of Kaylee and Inara (but not really).</p>
            </blockquote>





	Run, run as fast as you can

**Author's Note:**

> Firefly-Avengers AU that basically has nothing to do with either plots!
> 
> Warnings: Basically, allusions to events of the Iron Man movie which is certainly not PG or pleasant.
> 
> (I think Tony Stark should come with his own warning.)
> 
> Also, I make no claim to know much about anything, so if there are glaring inaccuracies chalk it down to my ignorance and this work as fiction and thus not verifiable fact. (Seriously, I talk out of my arse a lot.)
> 
> Also, I own nothing. Anything recognisable is owned by either Marvel or Joss Whedon.

There was a guest on the ship.

Not an unusual occurrence but this particular guest Tony recognised.

Dam.

And he had hoped that they couldn’t find him, that he had fled far enough, was travelling so far under the radar as to be forgotten.

Because surely, _surely_ , he wasn’t important enough to keep surveillance on.

He eyed the hatch from his vantage point, hidden from those stuck in the standoff below. There was no way he would be able to leave without being spotted. 

Double Dam.

He could retreat to his quarters and wait until they brought out the big guns and started searching the entire ship but...

He was _Tony Stark_.

And he had been fleeing far too long.

Retreat was not an option. So, guns blazing then.

Affecting cool nonchalance Tony stuck his hands in his pockets and sauntered down the steps, not emphasising his presence but dam sure not to sneak by quietly either.

“Fury, long time no see.” He grinned, shark like, ignoring Cap’s warning glare, stepping around the comforting bulk until he was right in front of the uninvited guest, Cap standing just behind his shoulder.

“Stark.” The response was clipped.

“Aw, did you miss me?” Tony grinned with a wink. He could almost feel Cap behind him stifle the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Funnily enough, not so much no.”

And Tony knew Fury had a sense of humour.

(It was well stifled behind the stress of his job but it was definitely there.)

“That hurts. I mean, I really thought we had something.” Tony sniffed, cataloguing the agent standing cool and composed just a few steps behind Fury. The woman had been out of sight from his previous vantage point.

She was definitely a threat; Tony clocked at least two guns and a knife. He doubted she would need a weapon to kill someone. They would probably just slow her down.

Fury rolled his eye.

“Hill, pass me the warrant.” Fury ordered, holding out his hand for the paper the female agent passed him.

“A present? You shouldn’t have.” Tony teased. Fury shoved the document in his face, completely unimpressed.

Tony grimaced; he didn’t like being handed things but nonetheless he loosely gripped the paper slapped to his chest.

He skimmed over it feeling his eyes widen in shock as he did so. He schooled his features as quickly as he could.

“I know I’m the apple of your eye but this is going a little far to have me back.” Tony drawled, letting his hand fall, faux relaxed, to his side fingers loosely holding the arrest warrant.

“It isn’t under SHIELD’s jurisdiction. That’s a copy of the warrant that was supposed to be active three weeks ago.” Fury informed him blandly.

A hand snatched the bit of paper from his grasp.

“Hey! I thought snatching wasn’t polite!” Tony snapped indignantly. Cap ignored him, reading over the warrant he had stolen. Tony looked away; he didn’t particularly want to see Cap’s face when he read it.

He hadn’t actually lied to the Captain but lies of omission were still classed as lies in Caps book. Tony should know; he’d managed to tick every single box in that dammed book. And not in a good way. 

His fingers tapped on his chest, against the hidden casing.

Fury’s eyes followed the movement and Tony fucking hated that knowing look.

“Hold on a second, why does this warrant address Stark as a Companion?” Cap-Steve asked, blue eyes blinking at Fury in confusion.

Yeah, Tony was fucked. 

Cover blown and all that.

Captain Rogers seemed to get his answer from Tony avoiding his gaze and Fury’s steadfast silence.

“But...I thought you were a mechanic? An engineer?” Cap sounded a little lost.

“I am! One of the best engineers to walk the planets, Cap.” Tony snapped a little sharper than he had intended. Great, now he sounded defensive.

“And one of the top in his class of Companions to have left the guild.” Fury added in slyly.

Tony glared.

“Not helpful. You stay out of this. This is precisely- hang on- ‘supposed to be active’? What does that mean?” Tony derailed, mind clinging onto something Fury had said that he should have brought attention to immediately. Would have if he wasn’t so distracted.

“SHIELD intercepted the command. The authorities have no notion of the order.” Fury informed him. “It came from up high. Someone in power has it out for you.” The way Fury said ‘someone’ was suspicious. At least to Tony. He had no doubt Fury knew exactly who had ordered the warrant for his arrest.

“So what? You want bragging rights or something? Maybe a free fix?” Tony asked, honestly wondering what the hell Fury wanted from him, he wouldn’t have come here in person otherwise.

To be honest, he probably wouldn’t have stopped the warrant if he didn’t want something from Tony.

“Your self imposed mission of sorts is... _appreciated_. SHIELD has a few documents for you to look over while you helpfully tweak the engine of the Helicarrier.” Fury smiled, it wasn’t a particularly nice smile.

Tony grasped the implications immediately.

“So, just to make it clear, you’re adding a few people to my list? Hiring me to do your dirty work? Just because you approve of what I’m doing?” Tony asked, somewhat amused.

However it was disturbingly clear that Fury, and SHIELD, knew far too much about him and his doings. Far more than they should have.

He was going to have to comb very carefully over JARVIS’ code later and triple check the security around any communications he sent.

“No. You’re going to repay your debt; otherwise this warrant goes up in every spec of planet dust in this infernal system. That clear?” Fury bit out obviously having reached the end of his patience allowance for Tony Stark.

“Recruiting speeches have slipped.” Tony said, not fazed by Fury’s anger. He knew that Fury wasn’t bluffing but Tony always pushed boundaries. He continued quickly when a muscle in Fury’s jaw jumped. “You drive a hard bargain; it sounds very tempting I’m sure...however there are one or two stipulations. Like, at least three stipulations.”

Fury snorted then pinched the bridge of his nose. 

Tony sensed movement behind him and stiffened when he remembered the fact it wasn’t just him and Fury in the room.

Natasha was surely around skulking somewhere out of sight yet perfect for her to get everyone within the sights of her gun.

Tony took Fury’s silence as tactic assent to list his demands.

“One, you and your organisation can’t use this information for blackmail purposes or leak it to get my ass behind bars. Two, this stays between us, here, no need to get Pepper or Rhodey involved. And three,” Tony paused and looked round the now familiar loading bay of the America, the sturdy ship that although a bit battered ran better than she’d ever done before.

“Three?” Fury prompted quietly, albeit impatiently.

“Three. You and your SHIELD buddies leave this ship and crew alone.” 

“That all?” Fury said dryly.

“This is a one off thing; I’m not going to be like a consultant or something.” Tony said wondering if he was doing something stupid. Not an infrequent occurrence despite his staggering intellect. 

Fury rolled his eye.

“I wouldn’t want you in SHIELD. You’d cause mass panic in the first week. People would jump ship.”

“Ha! I knew you could tell jokes!” Tony exclaimed with a purposefully bright grin. 

“Who said I was joking?” Fury asked flatly. “It took you less than a day to compromise a good agent, without any of your fancy toys.”

“In my defence, I didn’t know he was with SHIELD.” Tony defended himself feebly.

“Would it have changed anything if you had known?” Fury raised his eyebrow.

Tony had to grudgingly give him that one, he had been in a rush and seducing the information he had needed had seemed the best option at the time.

It had worked.

“You need better agents.” Tony grudgingly said, not having anything else to counter Fury’s point. Fury gave him a gimlet stare.

“Tomorrow at six there will be an agent here to take you to the Helicarrier to fix up the engines. Captain Rogers, good to meet you, do try not to strangle Stark with his own entrails, I know it’s an appealing prospect but blood stains are hard to get out of leather.” Fury turned on his heel and left the loading bay, Hill silently following.

Fury paused at the exit.

“Say hello to Dr. Banner for me.” A twirl of his coat and he was gone.

“When he said ‘six’ he meant PM right?” Tony asked turning and receiving a face full of glare.

“Ouch, uh, did I like kick your puppy or something, Cap? Cause I’m not sure even that merits the glare of death. I feel like my intestines are shrivelling, you know it takes more muscles to frown than to smile, just saying, saving you the extra effort-”

“Stark” Captain Rogers bit out so clipped and cold that Tony’s mouth instinctively shut with a snap.

“Explain.” 

One word sentences. Not good.

“I thought it was pretty self explanatory. Fury wants me to do a job and thought not letting me get arrested was the way to go about it.” Tony answered flippantly. Cap’s expression didn’t lighten. Tough crowd.

“What ‘self imposed mission’ was enough to gain SHIELDs attention?”

“Well, that’s a bit of a broad question, I mean technically I’ve always been on SHIELDs watch list, so it could have been me just building up my collection of original books from Earth-that-was. Or it-”

“The truth.” Captain Rogers snapped.

Tony narrowed his eyes.

“Why should I tell you?” He bit out the beginnings of anger simmering in his veins.

Captain Rogers stalked forward until they were practically chest to chest.

“Because this vessel is under my command, the crew under my protection and I can’t have a _guest_ selfishly putting everyone in danger.”

Tony blinked, derailed.

Had he- was that-

Fine. Whatever.

So apparently he wasn’t a part of the crew any longer.

Glad that was cleared up.

“Well, I’ll clear out my things then. Good luck finding another engineer with a prayer of keeping the America running.” Tony said quietly, turning on his heel and leaving the loading deck, hands clenched into fists at his sides so he didn’t give into the urge and sock the Captain in the jaw.

It would probably have only hurt him anyway.

 

#

 

“I’m not sure what that was, care to explain?” Clint asked, ducking across the railing and swinging down to the deck beside Steve.

Steve sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in frustration.

“Just a disagreement.” Steve answered shortly discouraging more conversation.

“That was a lot of things. An argument, sure, a _disagreement_ however...you don’t kick people off the ship because of a disagreement.” Clint refuted.

Steve clenched his jaw.

“I didn’t kick him off the ship.” 

“Well, you kind of did. You called him a ‘guest’, like he isn’t part of the crew.”

“Crew members don’t knowingly put everyone else in danger. It’s like being sold out.” Steve explained in clipped sentences. Clint snorted.

“You were far more lenient with the Doc.” Clint observed without censure.

“That’s different.” Steve frowned.

“Not from where I’m standing. Man’s got a right to keep his secrets and Tony’s don’t appear to be putting us in danger. Pretty much the same situation, I don’t see any differences.” Clint pointed out.

Steve rubbed his forehead.

“That is different; Dr. Banner was/is being hunted down because of blind prejudice, he had a legitimate reason to be skipping out on the law.” Steve refuted.

“And Tony doesn’t?”

Steve opened his mouth then closed it again.

He would have automatically said ‘no’, but what did he know really? 

“I’m pretty sure if he was doing something too bad SHIELD wouldn’t be bailing him out of a tight spot.” Clint voiced his thoughts.

And that was true.

No matter how Fury had worded it, it was SHIELD doing a favour for Tony. If SHIELD wanted Tony’s ‘mission’ completed then they would just do it, send out a competent agent. And while Tony was an excellent engineer Steve doubted there was any problem with the Helicarrier.

Something settled in his gut unpleasantly.

He had jumped the gun a bit with Tony.

“Look, Cap, I’m not saying you’re wrong to have reservations, just that you need to cut Tony a little slack. You’re harder on him than anyone else.” Clint clapped him on the shoulder and walked off.

Steve frowned once again.

Was he tougher on Tony? Because sounded almost like bullying and Steve couldn’t stand bullies.

A whisper of displaced air at his side announced the new presence.

“Natasha, I suppose you’re here to tell me where I went wrong too?” Steve asked wryly, the barest attempt at humour twitching up the corners of his lips.

Natasha raised an eyebrow.

“Do I need to?” She asked.

“I think Clint covered it.”

“What are you planning on doing then?”

“First, apologise.”

“Good answer.”

Steve turned to leave; he needed to sort out his own thoughts before having another ‘conversation’ with Tony. Tony who scrambled his head on the best of days, it wouldn’t be good to talk while he was still so muddled. He’d be liable to blow his top.

“Captain, make sure you say the right thing, we need Tony Stark.” Natasha called out as he retreated.

 

#

 

Tony threw some of his clothes into the open case with more violence than some bits of cloth probably deserved.

He had been just as much part of the crew as anyone else on this tub and he hadn’t caused trouble, not much anyway. He’d been here for nine months and _still_ Steve was jumping down his throat for every little thing.

He slammed his hand against the thin mattress on his bunk.

What had he done to Steve to make him hate him this much?

Alright, maybe hate was the wrong word (he doubted Steve could _hate_ anything), but still his point stood.

Indignation flared within him and he scowled at the wall. It wasn’t fair.

Great. Now he sounded like a teenager.

He flopped onto his bunk, looking round the small room he had been assigned when he _joined the crew_ (fuck you Cap) as the engineer. It was small, probably the smallest room he’d ever lived in but it felt far more like home than anything else ever had.

He’d miss it.

Who was he kidding?

He’d miss the others.

Clint who was nearly as snarky as him and ever willing to banter.

Bruce whose brain was practically candy land to him.

Natasha who was creepy as fuck but awesome in the best of ways. (Tony was half convinced that one day he would find one of his kidneys had been sold on the black market and he wouldn’t have even noticed the loss.)

And Steve. He’d miss the Steve that looked so confused by whatever Tony was working on, the Steve who, when in a good mood, would throw the odd quip, the Steve who looked out into the endless universe with such wide eyed awe.

Hell, he’d even miss keeping the tub going with just a tin full of wishes, spit and his marvellous brain. (Along with judicious use of duct tape.) 

But it wasn’t enough to keep him; he wasn’t going to stay where he wasn’t wanted. (Even if he was pretty sure Bruce at least would miss him.)

He _wouldn’t_ miss Cap. The assclown who saw fault in everything he did.

He sighed and stood up, grabbed some books (real paper books) and gently made room for them within the case, stacking blueprints on top (most of his work was digital – thank you JARVIS – but he did occasionally resort to primitive measures). He sighed, scrubbing his face wearily.

He didn’t _want_ to leave. Not really. He just...couldn’t stay.

Absently he thumbed through an aged copy of The Lord Of The Rings the complete works, by a writer from earth that was, it was a possession that had accompanied him since he was a teenager. A gift.

The hatch door swung open and a familiar head popped through the door.

“Security breach.” Tony muttered, getting to his feet and squaring his shoulders.

“I knocked.” Steve admitted just a touch irately.

Did he? Tony must have been more out of it than he thought if he hadn’t heard.

“I was reading.” He lied, holding up the book as evidence. Steve blinked, as though disconcerted then stepped down the ladder until he was in the room properly.

Tony waited but Steve didn’t say anything. He examined his _guest_.

Steve was looking round the room, hands behind his back, almost as though he was uncomfortable, eyes flickering from one knickknack to the next.

“Just spit it out.” Tony finally grumbled, slumped back against the bunk, his arm flopped across his face.

“What?” Steve jerked, startled. Tony waved his hand at him.

“Say whatever you came to say, seriously, I cracked under the silent treatment and you can’t stick me in the naughty corner-”

“Is everything a joke to you?” Great. Irritated Cap was back. Tony sat up.

“Funny things are. But right now you’re not very funny.” Tony bit out, lips thinned. He crossed his arms, shooting a glower. Cap clenched his jaw. Tony got to his feet, the spike of anger rushing through his veins. 

“Just get out. I don’t want to hear it. I’ll be out of your hair by sundown and you can forget you ever met me, spit on my memory or whatever, I don’t care.” Tony found himself almost chest to chest with Steve without remembering stalking forward, finger nearly jabbing the sculpted chest a mere centre meter away.

“I came here to apologise!” Steve shouted out sounding just as cross as Tony felt.

Tony huffed. “Yeah, great apology Cap, I’d return it if I could sound that unapologetic. Can I ask something?” Tony didn’t wait for him to speak just barrelled on. “What did I do to earn this animosity? Seriously. I’m used to pissing people off, it’s a talent, but usually I know why I made someone mad, usually I know what I did that was so offensive. So could you please tell me what I did wrong?”

Tony didn’t care if he was fucking shouting or whatever. (He wasn’t, not really, he didn’t raise his voice often. Ever.)

“Look, I’m sorry, okay? I apologise, I spoke without thinking, I didn’t mean it. You are part of the crew.” Steve’s voice was strained but he sounded sincere.

Tony narrowed his eyes and stepped back.

“Fine. Apology accepted or whatever.” He muttered tiredly, cramming some more clothes into the case.

“You’re still leaving?”

Tony rolled his shoulders, loosening them up. Steve sounded a little lost, adrift.

He crossed his arms and looked at the Captain. Dam it; he shouldn’t be able to look that young.

“Won’t you stay? The America needs an engineer.”

Because he was fucking _useful_. Great.

“I want to renegotiate.” He eventually relented. Steve’s eyes narrowed.

“I’ll rent one of the shuttles, move out this bunk and rent one of the shuttles.”

Steve nodded slowly, frowning.

“Fine, but why?”

“Because then, if I’m a paying customer you can’t just set me adrift on a fucking outer planet with fuck all travel options.” Tony snapped.

Steve flushed. He nodded, avoiding Tony’s gaze and made his way up the ladder and out of the small room.

“Cap?” Tony called once the man was nearly out of eyeshot. Steve stiffened and turned slowly, so Tony could see his profile. “I’d apologise for keeping secrets but it would be an empty apology.” 

 

#

 

“Is that everything?” Bruce asked dryly.

Tony looked round his new home until Cap decided to kick him off the tub again. It was bigger than his bunk but not by much.

He didn’t have much stuff (not by his standards) but it was still more than all the others carried around. Granted, a lot of it was engineering things, tools, scraps that he could utilise and more was extra clothes he needed when he used his Companion credentials to get somewhere, usually into the clients bed. From inside the household it was far easier to plant the seeds of his revenge. Especially when he was underestimated.

“I could buy more...” Tony grinned, clapping Bruce on the shoulder in thanks for helping him drag his stuff to the shuttle.

“You’ll probably be helping me lug it off the ship soon so I won’t make our job more difficult by accumulating more.”

Bruce frowned. 

Well, that wasn’t quite what Tony was going for. Did no one else on this ship do light hearted? 

Stupid question, of course not.

“The Captain won’t kick you off. Technically he didn’t kick you off today. You chose to move to the shuttle.” Bruce said gently. Tony frowned.

“He’ll get irritated with me soon enough and send me off.” 

“I don’t think so.” Bruce disagreed mildly. Tony huffed.

“I think you both concentrate so much on what each of you says that you miss the actions.” Bruce smiled wanly. “But I suppose me saying that isn’t going to change anything.”

“Nope. Cap’s stuck up and me breathing seems to anger him.” Tony stated with an eye roll.

“Hmmm. Whatever you say, Tony. Though I still think you should mention the, uh,” Bruce’s arms waved erratically at his chest. Tony instantly understood. He glowered.

“I made a shit first impression, I know that but you can’t excuse things away just because of that flimsy reason.” 

Bruce looked at him flatly.

“You were dying. I think that is a pretty valid reason for you not making the best first impression.” Bruce spoke quietly, the understanding in his brown eyes made Tony’s shoulders itch uncomfortably.

“Point of that: I was dying. As in, no longer am. Fixed the problem, thanks for getting me some of those medicines by the way, everything is hunky-dory. Why mention it now?” The palladium poisoning from his arc reactor had not been a fun experience, really fucking painful in fact. And being stranded so far from his lab had made it all the more difficult to come up with a fix.

But he had cured it about seven months ago so he didn’t see why Bruce was bringing it up now.

Bruce shrugged. “Maybe it’ll stop him jumping the gun when it comes to you.”

“Ha.” Tony snorted. Bruce took the hint and dropped the conversation.

 

#

 

Steve pushed his cup away from him, frowning at the steam that arose from the warm beverage.

The kitchen was lit with a single dim light in deference for the crew time sleeping hours. If he strained he could picture this room, a little dirtier, a little more broken. He could almost feel the phantom arm around his shoulders, a uninhibited laugh ringing through the deck. 

Steve swallowed. Bucky would always slap him on the back of his head when he got introspective and melancholic.

Bucky wasn’t here anymore. 

Steve sighed into his coffee. Well, the black sludge that was masquerading as coffee anyway.

He lifted his head when he caught the sound of shuffling feet approaching. He turned to see Tony stumble into the kitchen, heading to the coffee pot with single minded focus.

His clothes were rumpled, t-shirt stained with engine grease and his hair stood up in every direction. He looked half dead to exhaustion and simultaneously like the most alive person Steve had ever encountered.

Tony was like energy thrumming through the blood, an electric current barely contained by a thin layer of skin. Exhausting. Thrilling. Running too hot, too fast.

“Everything in tip-top shape?” Steve asked mildly. He had been taking Clint’s advice into account and had found it was startlingly easy to be at least civil to Tony so long as he bit back his instinctive response before opening his mouth.

Not a particularly nice truth to realise. That he had been needlessly antagonising.

At least he could take comfort in the fact that Tony gave just as good as he got.

Tony jumped, feet actually leaving the ground. Steve stifled a grin, he thought that kind of thing only happened in those promotional shows for kids, the cartoons all loud colours, blaring noise and slapstick comedy.

(Funnily enough that reminded him of someone...)

“One day you’re going to give me a heart attack.” Tony groused, clutching at his chest with unnecessary theatrics. “I bet that is your sneaky master plan! I’ve uncovered the plot to end my life; you are going to go down... _sneaker_.” Tony hissed the last word as though it was the worst insult he could come up with.

Steve handed him his coffee.

“You look like you need it.” Steve responded to the suspicious look he was given.

“Can’t talk, coffee.” Tony murmured, staring into the depths of the bitter brew like it was the only thing keeping him tethered to reality.

With the way he got through it Steve wouldn’t be surprised. He practically ran on the stuff.

“So,” Steve began when he felt enough time had passed that Tony would be caffeinated enough to hold a conversation, “everything tip-top shape?” He repeated.

“Yeah, no.” Tony said, his dark eyes snapping over to Steve as clarity slowly returned.

“What’s up?” Steve asked.

“The thermoregulatory system is on its last legs. Wait, scratch that, it was on its last legs three years ago it is now officially legless, armless and missing a whole lot of essential body parts.”

“Can you keep it running?” Steve asked hopefully.

“Cap, not even Thor’s hammer could keep it running and we need it. If the engines overheat then the circuits fry and at best everything shuts down at worst we blow. If the engines cool too much they freeze and lock in place or the stress eventually causes an explosion. We _need_ new parts.” Tony mined an explosion.

“Damn.” Steve cursed. “I take it that it would be expensive?”

“Not expensive really.” Tony said, Steve shot him a look. “But when you have no funds then yeah, it’s pretty damn expensive.”

“We’re coming up on empty in credits. We blew the last chunk on medical supplies.” Steve said resignedly. It seemed that maybe the America’s end was coming up sooner rather than later.

“I don’t suppose a wish and a prayer would hold it until we reached the Brooklyn moons? I have a couple of favours I could pull over there.”

“Sorry Cap.” Tony said shaking his head. “I’m just hoping we make it to Latvia’s planetary system before we shut down.”

“Damn.” Steve said with more feeling. “Got any brilliant ideas?” He asked without much hope.

Tony hesitated.

“What?”

“Well, if it’s a question of money then I can get you the credits.” Tony said warily.

“What’s the catch?” Steve asked, resigned.

“No catch.” Tony shook his head, toying with the handle of his empty coffee cup. “Just one condition.”

Steve braced himself.

“We have to leave the moment the credits come through. Straight after the transaction, no dallying, no delays.”

“Of course.” Steve agreed a little puzzled as to why Tony sounded so urgent. “And the moment we start earning again you’ll be paid back.”

“Don’t worry about the credits, Cap.” Tony dismissed. “Just ensure a speedy send off.”

“You’ll be paid back. Crew members don’t individually pay for the running of the ship. That’s a collective collaboration.” Steve said firmly.

“I’ll consider leaving quickly as payment. Seriously, Cap, that isn’t even pocket change to my account.”

A few weeks ago Steve would have bristled at that, sure that Tony was rubbing his wealth in his face. Now he wondered what had Tony so scared.

“We’ll leave straight after.” Steve promised.

They were all running, every last one of them.

Sometimes it was nice to be running in a group.

 

#

 

So, of course, everything went to hell in a hand basket.

There was a delay where Bruce had to shake a tail, one at the gate where their papers were triple checked as per some new regulation.

And by then, of course, the ship was marked and his position had been flagged.

Tony cursed violently enough that Clint clapped, Steve raised an eyebrow and Natasha stifled a smirk. Bruce just blinked and cleaned his glasses.

“Mr Stark, you will only be detained for a few minutes, I assure you.” The nervous man repeated.

“Don’t worry about it, Mr Jenkins; Tony won’t be bothering you anymore. I can handle him now.” A smooth familiar voice said as an arm snaked over Tony’s shoulders and a heavy hand squeezed.

“Tony, Tony, Tony.” Obadiah sighed shaking his head with that oh so familiar disappointment.

“Obie. Were you waiting by the comm link just for a mention of little old me?” Tony asked. “I’m flattered, really.” Obie must have been to have appeared so quickly after Tony’s credit usage was flagged.

“You caused me quite a few headaches recently, Tony. Especially after your little ruse in Malibu was discovered.” Obie mentioned casually. Too casually.

Tony couldn’t help but stiffen a little bit. He hadn’t known the situation in Malibu was compromised. And if he hadn’t known that what else had slipped through the cracks?

“Did you think you could pay that little friend of yours to play you forever? To pretend to be you living it up while you went around doing as you pleased all over the verse?” Obie waited for Tony’s response.

“Well, it worked for three years so...” Tony grinned, teeth bared.

“You know, it would have been so much easier for you to have remained in the Companion guild.” Obie sighed.

Tony couldn’t regret joining the guild, it had been the only thing that stopped his seventeen year old self from imploding. Messily. But he did resent the part Obie had played in sending him there.

“Easier for you or me?” 

Obadiah looked at him like Tony was stupid. It was a look he had never cared for and even less so now.

“Don’t be like that Tony.” Obie tisked. “Anyway, at least your little show of independence yielded some gain.” Obadiah said, as though Tony escaping from torture and trying to get out from under the thumb of Obadiah’s control was a simple temper tantrum.

Tony flinched when Obie tapped the casing on his chest, the metal echoing hollowly.

“Now, your transportation device was _useful_ ,” And Tony hated it when Obie called it a transportation device, it was an atom redistributor and he hadn’t initially invented it for simply transporting people across the verse in a split second. (Mainly because it wasn’t fiscally worth it...that and the side effects.)

“But _this_ ,” he tapped the casing of the arc reactor again. “This is the golden egg. Your greatest invention.”

Tony resisted the urge to snort. JARVIS was his best and greatest but he and Obie had never seen eye to eye on things of importance.

Tony side stepped out from under Obie’s arm, breathing a little easier now the weight was gone from his shoulders.

“Come now Tony, don’t be like that.” Obie reproved mildly, taking a step forward before a frown crossed his face. He reached up to the back of his neck before flopping down, face first to the ground.

Tony blinked.

“He talked way too much.” Bruce murmured, cleaning his glasses with hands that had been handcuffed behind his back just a moment before.

“We’re surrounded; people are going to notice the disturbance.” Natasha said, absently checking her wrists were Tony knew her best weapons were. (And they weren’t her best weapons simply because Tony had tweaked them. Although, that was part of the reason.)

“Clint’s taken out the guards. This way.” Steve ordered, gesturing to the back of the tent like structure.

Tony blinked and followed.

“I promised we’d be out as quickly as possible. Call this the backup plan.” Steve shrugged as Clint managed to get the America out of the bay and away from the dock as fast as possible.

“Well, that’ll teach me to doubt the word of the Captain.” Tony muttered to himself, barely stifling a grin.

“Thanks guys.” He said gratefully.

“Tony, you’ve done exactly the same for us.” Bruce mentioned, rolling his eyes.

Clint socked him (gently) in the shoulder.

“You owe me some new stun arrows. I used up the last of my supply down there.” Clint said, hopping back into the pilots seat.

“Ditto.” Natasha said, chucking over one of her wrist stingers.

That was definitely a ‘you’re welcome’.

Tony grinned. 

Steve caught his eyes and after a long moment a slow grin spread across his face to mirror Tony.

That was a ‘you’re part of my crew’.

 

#

 

There was a guest on the ship.

Not an unusual occurrence but this particular guest Tony recognised.

Dam.

Not again.

“Fury, back so soon?”

“Stark.” The response was clipped.

“Aw, did you miss me?” Tony grinned with a wink. He could almost feel Cap behind him stifle the urge to pinch the bridge of his nose.

“Funnily enough not everything is about you.” Fury responded dryly.

“Shock! You have shaken me to my core! I am shaken, shaken!”

“Hold the dramatics.” Fury ordered, sounding pained. “Captain, I have a proposition for you and your team.”

“That sounds naughty.” Tony winked. Steve sighed. The vein inn Fury’s forehead twitched.

“Recently a particularly powerful weapon was stolen from SHIELD’s stores by an unknown individual. I would like you and your team to locate this weapon and subdue the perpetrator.”

“What kind of weapon? What force would we be dealing with?” Steve asked.

“SHIELD is...uncertain at this point.” Fury admitted reluctantly.

“Oh.” Tony felt his eyes widen as he watched the footage from three days ago at the storage facility.

“Please tell me Stark didn’t just hack into our secure system?” Fury asked over the comms.

Steve winced.

Fury sighed.

“At least try to keep him reigned in.”

“I don’t actually think that is possible, sir.” Steve said ruefully, putting a hand on Tony’s shoulder and paused the footage. Before Tony could protest Steve zoomed in and tapped whatever had grabbed his attention.

It was a small glowing cube.

“Ha! You love it.” Tony said. Steve rolled his eyes but Tony caught the twitch of his lips that betrayed his amusement.

Tony ran JARVIS over the footage to see if there was any information on the net about the glowing blue cube or the mystery man.

 

# xxx #

 

Steve scowled.

“Is the engine fixed yet?” He asked Natasha grumpily.

“Ask your damned engineer, you picked her.” Natasha snapped back, her temper just as frayed as his.

Steve got to his feet with a stifled groan – they were all a little sore from their last...foray...into gathering munitions – and made his way to the engine room where a rhythmic clanking sound could be heard.

Steve hoped that meant Sunset was actually hard at work trying to fix the engine but he didn’t expect it to be the case.

She didn’t strike Steve as a person who would bother to work her best on this battered ship.

He stepped into the room and faltered.

“Alright! Break it up!” He ordered, staring up at the ceiling to avoid looking at the naked flesh of the two entwined on top of the engine. (And surely that wasn’t sanitary?)

The sound of the couple scrambling for their clothes met his ears and he waited until he was relatively sure both were decent before meeting Sunset’s eyes.

“Is the engine fixed?” He asked with deceptive lightness.

“No. You’d need at least a complete overhaul of the thermonuclear system to even begin.” Sunset stated firmly.

A snort drew Steve’s attention.

“Anything to add?” He asked the young man, who was shrugging on a t-shirt.

“You don’t need all that crap, the best that will do is modernise parts of the engine that don’t need modernising.” The man said, rubbing his goatee absently, eyes running over the battered, ancient depths of the engine room. 

Steve watched as the man seemed to take delight in his surroundings despite the fact it was at least forty years out of date.

“And your degree in engineering exists where?” Sunset asked with a frown.

“Don’t have one.” The man chirped brightly. “Don’t need one.” He added and rifled through the guts of the engine before pulling out something that to Steve’s eyes looked like a huge spider crossed with a comms unit.

“A little bit of spit, duct tape and a couple of new piston valves and she’ll be as good as new.”

Sunset scoffed. “This junk needs a lot more than a new lick of paint to make it work.”

Steve ignored her.

“You can get her running?” He addressed the man.

“Well, yeah.” The man shrugged. “She’s a beauty and there’s nothing wrong with her ticker.”

“Right.” Steve nodded. “You’re fired.” He informed Sunset, relieved to see the back of her; she hadn’t meshed with the crew well at all. “You want to work for the America?” 

“Well,” The man began and Steve wondered if the man had other commitments, a life on this planet.

(Although he couldn’t really picture it, this man seemed too bright, too alive to live in the outskirts here.)

“I’ll have to speak with my tutor and pack up my kit first.”

Steve grinned.

“Welcome to the crew. We leave at eight o’clock tomorrow local time. What’s your name?”

“Tony Stark.” The man said holding out his hand. “Yours?”

“Steve Rogers, captain of this here tub.”

Tony fished out one of his shoes from a corner and slipped it on. Steve turned to leave.

“Wait,” Tony’s voice called out, “when you said eight o’clock you meant pm right?”

Steve felt a smile tug up his lips.

“Nope.” He responded cheerfully, practically whistling as he left the room.


End file.
